We stayed in room 8 and the first thing to mention is that St Ives lacks any hotels other than the Dolphin which is full of wedding parties on the weekend.

The Golden Lion is a popular and busy pub so staying here will never be a quiet or relaxing choice and the rooms are basic and functional.

The TV in our room needed retuning in order to work and the 'free' WIFI did not work at all.

Trying to sleep before 1 am is impossible but the hotel is very clear about the noise and location.

Breakfast is included and is perfectly adequate.

There is little choice in St Ives when it comes to places to stay.

My collagues and I have been staying almost every week at the Golden Lion since October 2010 and we finished in St Ives last week. The Hotel is in the centre of St Ives and I would recommend it wholeheartedly. Having read the other reviews on here I recognise some of the comments but not others. It's true that some rooms are better than others. I was usually towards the front of the hotel and had a large comfportable bedroom, amazingly powerful bath and shower and a super-comfy bed with thick duvet. The room had a flat screen TV with over 40 digital TV stations; some of the smaller rooms had portable TVs with just 4 or 5 channels. This has to change soon as the area goes fully digital in the next few weeks so the old TVs will have to be replaced or given boxes so they, too, can get the digital TV offerings.

The bar is lively and friendly so it can be noisy up to midnight but it's a great place to mingle and to meet the natives and we found the ambiance in the bar to be welcoming, even for the single women in our group. The staff at the hotel, without exception, could not do enough for us. Always a smile, always wanting to make sure we were happy even to the extent of going out in the late evening to a local supermarket to ensure that there would be skimmed milk for one of our number. Breakfast is cooked to order and is of a good quality and there is plenty of cereal and yoghurts to be had as well.

Food in the hotel is much better than your normal pub grub. Their specials board changes several times a week and their home-made fishcakes are brilliant. If the cajun prawn fishcakes are on the menu when you visit, I throughly recommend them!

Parking is either outside the hotel on the street or at the nearby long-stay car park - £2 for 23 hours. The car park has won safe car park awards, is very well lit and we never experienced any problems during out 5 months in St Ives.

My partner and I stayed here for one night on Sat 11th Sept. We were warned that the hotel can be noisy and so were offered a reduced rate. The bar downstairs was open until about midnight, but didn't really disturb us anyway. We ate here for dinner and the food was really good, if a little pricey. The breakfast in the morning was excellent. Our room was small but fine for our needs, but really warm and we weren't able to reach the window to cool the room down. That was our only complaint, though, as the room and bathroom were clean and the bed comfy.

stayed in room 3 during a business trip. Very noisy until 11:30pm (not good when you have to be up at 7am!). Seemed the room was over the top of a speaker! I have stayed there numerous times in different rooms - all seem affected by the noise, apart from the very front rooms (looking out onto the main high street) however they suffer from street noise instead! Beds not particularly comfortable and decor quite 'tired'. Breakfast ok.
If you want some peace and quiet, dont book here. If you're a party animal and will be going to bed half-cooked, it's probably ok for you!
Wireless access is free, although extremely flaky and veryyyyy slow